The 2013 Starbird-Devlin Car Show took place at the main hall of the Century II Convention Center in downtown, Wichita, KS this year. Made famous when customizer Darryl Starbird started the show 56 years ago in Wichita, Kansas, the event has recently changed ownership and become a charity based show, with 100-percent of the proceeds going to three local charities: The ARC of Sedgwick County, Starkey, and Big Brothers Big Sisters of Kansas.

It’s not every day you get to see so many top-notch cars in one beautiful location. The 6th Annual Factory Five Racing event took place this past Saturday, April 27th, in Huntington, Beach, California, right along the pier and Main Street. We were overwhelmed by all of the amazing Factory Five MK4 Roadsters, Type 65 Coupes, and ’33 Hot Rods.

For Ford fans, one of the best rites of spring is the annual Fabulous Fords Forever! car show held every April at Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park, California.

Goodguys should be in the record books at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. For almost two decades they’ve been coming to the heart of NASCAR country and putting on a highly successful automotive event at this gigantic complex without filling a single seat. That’s because, unlike other events taking place here, most of the action at the Goodguys Southeastern Nats takes place on the infield, where a field of more than 2,500 street rods, customs, classics, trucks, street machines, and muscle cars compete for attention and awards—including the 10 picks for the Builder’s Choice award selected by Kyle and Stacey Tucker of Detroit Speed, and 10 other selections for the 2012 Painless Performance/STREET RODDER Top 100.

Few events can compare with Cruisin' the Coast. The event involves three counties, six cities, 300 volunteers from 13 car clubs to ensure that the 6,169 registered cruisers all have a great time during the weeklong Cruisin' the Coast event. The big show has been going on for 16 years now and it continues to become bigger and better each year.

The Ford Racing "Week on Woodward" Tour was planned to be something very different from our normal Road Tours. For the first time in Road Tour history we would spend an entire week in one city. The logical choice was the Motor City and the logical time was August as Detroit gears up for the largest participant automotive event in the world: the Woodward Dream Cruise. It was also the first tour where another magazine would join in the fun of a Road Tour. Muscle Car Review Editor Drew Hardin joined us, and readers were also invited to join in the fun.

There’s just something about attending an indoor car show that blends equal parts of excitement and anticipation together to generate one big adrenalin-rush. This is especially true after mothballing your hot rod or custom away from the inclement weather when you live back East. The best cure for beating cabin fever was to finally welcome spring by attending the 39thAnnual Boston World of Wheels held at the Seaport World Trade Center. With the show floor jam-packed with close to 200 of the area’s most wicked hot rods, customs, restos, muscle cars, and motorcycles, there was a virtual kaleidoscope of color check out. Once you entered the hall your senses were immediately consumed by a dizzying array of large format displays artfully laid out with many of the cars being judged for the Pilgrim Award for the first time being shown in Boston. It was a time to wander the aisles to check out all the latest builds, meet up with old friends, dig some of the latest products offered by countless vendors including the GM Performance Division, and Town Fair Tire to name but a few.

The Factory Five Racing (FFR) Road Tour was again headed to the Syracuse Nationals. For the second year our starting point was the Pottstown, Pennsylvania, headquarters of the Eastwood Company. Last year their Eastwood Summer Classic was a huge success and they decided to do it again. It was the perfect place to begin our week.

The Hot Rod Reunion, hosted by the Shades of the Past, celebrated its 30th annual event and even a little rain couldn’t keep 2,791 entrants and nearly 20,000 spectators from enjoying plenty of “sunny” southern hospitality. Getting comfy in its new home at Dollywood’s Splash Country Water Adventure Park, the “Shades”, as it’s likely to be called, continues to grow and offer a wide breath of hot rods to view. And it will continue to get better as the available area for the event will be expanded again in 2013.

If you know anything about the rod and custom scene (and if you’re reading Street Rodder, you had better), then you've definitely heard about and may even be a member of the Goodguys Rod & Custom Association. This year Goodguys is celebrating its 30th Anniversary, and the fun got underway last week in Scottsdale, Arizona with its 4th Spring Nationals. What gearhead Gary Meadors started as a small get together back in 1983 has now become a worldwide association of car enthusiasts. This year’s Scottsdale kickoff show showcased some 2,500 different hot rods in all, with everything ranging from ‘30s and ‘40s Ford Roadsters to modern day Camaros and Mustangs. As with the past 29 years of Gooduys’ get togethers, the common theme of having fun with cars continues.

Each year the Detroit Autorama hosts the Motorcity Mavens Auto Art Panel & Charity Auction that raises much needed money for the LeaderDogs for the blind. This year a Les Paul model guitar was donated by the Gibson Guitar's Gibson Foundation and all of the gold plated hardware was donated by Advanced Plating (Nashville, TN) along with the pinstriping by Rick Harris. The auction raises tens of thousands of dollars for this worthwhile charity. The tribute guitar was made to honor Bob 'JR' Larivee who was a driving force behind the Autorama who passed away last year.

Legendary customizer Gene Winfield is present at the 61st Detroit Autorama as well as seven other events for the express purpose of showing hot rodder what it takes to jump into chopping a top.

It happens every year as dozens upon dozens of contenders vie for the Detroit Autorama's most prestigious award-the Don Ridler Memorial Award.

The 61st Detroit Autorama is well known for the magnitude of its car show but it is also the home of the Don Ridler Memorial Award; the ultimate prize in the world of indoor car shows.

We're in Detroit this weekend once again, roaming the show floor of the 61st Annual Autorama, which is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Ridler award. As usual, there is no shortage of amazing cars and more to see. Here's a look at some of what we've run across while walking the Autorama show floor.

It may be the 61st Detroit Autorama but the main draw is the 50th Don Ridler Memorial Award. Celebrating 50 years of this most prestigious of awards the Autorama staff thought it fitting to gold plate this year's trophy. Impressive to look at and it will make a great conversation piece for years to come.

Blowin’ down the boulevard in a roadster is truly a blast, but for long trips and hauling family and friends to a mega-event like the Street Rod Nationals there’s nothing quite like the wide-open spaces of a big, comfy cruiser. Here’s a look at some of the cool high-capacity cruisers from the 2012 NSRA Street Rod Nationals.

Have you ever noticed that given the opportunity to do something enough times it becomes a habit, like building cars or attending an event? I’ve been around both, much like every STREET RODDER reader, my entire life and I have and always will be thoroughly fascinated by and enjoy them. Such is the case with our favorite car or our favorite event, and so it should be with our favorite national event. There are a number of great events to participate in but there will always be one Nats.

The staff at Classic Instruments, under the direction of John McLeod, sponsors and hosts the Pros Pick at all NSRA events. According to McLeod, “The Pros Pick gives us the opportunity to recognize the best of the best.” At this past summer’s NSRA Street Rod Nationals in Louisville, Kentucky, there were 12 cars selected by a panel of industry personalities (builders, manufacturers, and journalists) with Bobby Alloway of Alloway’s Hot Rods acting as the chief judge (or as we like to refer to him as the Grand Pooh-Bah of the Loyal Order of Water Buffaloes, ala Fred Flintstone!).

For many years the official fuel systems sponsor of the AMSOIL/STREET RODDER Road Tour has been and still is Aeromotive. Their background originated in the drag racing and high-performance end of our automotive hobby. With the growth in popularity of street rods and street machines, Aeromotive took their years of experience on the track and applied that knowledge to that new and growing market.

There is no denying the important role the T-bucket has played in the hobby of street rodding. During the rebirth of street rodding in the seventies it seemed half the cars at any street rod gathering were T-buckets. The T-bucket had a lot going for it, it was relatively simple to build, quite affordable and provided wicked performance in an open air atmosphere second only to motorcycles. Cross country trips to the early NSRA Street Rod Nationals in a bucket are now the thing of legend, bragging rights that last a lifetime.

We have been covering the Annual Daytona Beach Turkey run, off and on, for some 25 years and the 39th edition was as exciting and mind boggling as the first Turkey Run we attended. 4700 show cars, 1500 cars in the car corral. 3000 plus swap meet spaces, and a food midway that features, among other things, deep fried Oreo cookies, giant turkey legs, alligator bites, and great burgers. And all of this takes place in the infield of the infamous Daytona International Speedway.

For the ultimate in excitement there’s nothing like topping off the tank, grabbing a map, and heading off to a large national event like the 13th Syracuse Nationals. Once you made your way into Syracuse you were greeted by some of the finest cruising roads, especially if you were able to work your way through the scenic Finger Lakes region with its breathtaking views. Syracuse is also a city with a long history of automotive culture steeped in tradition as it was the birthplace of numerous automobile makes, including the Franklin, while also being the home of one of the largest collections of automobile memorabilia at the Museum of Automotive History. Add in spectacular architecture, great nightlife, and a wide selection of restaurants, and you have a winning combination.

Things were cooking in Columbus! In the days leading up to the event we had been checking the weather reports from central Ohio, hoping the triple-digit temperatures and 90-plus percent humidity would take a dive before we got to town. It didn’t, and 6,000 street rods, customs, classic trucks, street machines, street cruisers, and muscle cars came with some heat of their own, making the 15th Goodguys PPG Nationals one of the hottest events of the summer.

Time travel. On a scientific level we haven’t managed to accomplish the feat, but leave it to hot rodders to figure out how to do it with virtually no high-tech equipment. It’s as simple as getting in your street rod, vintage drag car, or custom and high tailing it to the NHRA Hot Rod Reunion. Right now there are two of these events a year, one in Bakersfield, California, and the other in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Both events are permanently placed on many hot rodders’ “must attend” list, and for good reason.